Mariner has been taken aboard the mysterious ship behind so many disappearances this season, and now learns Nick Locarno has been behind it all. He invites her to join his new alliance of "lower deckers," but she is determined to stop him -- and prevent him from using the Genesis Device aboard his ship. Meanwhile, the Cerritos must come to the rescue, and the only way to do so requires Tendi to make a big sacrifice.
Overall, I felt this episode hit all the right emotional beats. The show really did complete a story arc particular to life on "the lower decks," and paid off a lot of personal character journeys that had been in the mix this season. Mariner finally pulled out of her self-destructive funk. Tendi had to embrace the Orion identity she has shunned (more fully than ever) to save the day. T'Lyn came to realize the place where she feels (logically, of course) that she belongs. And ambitious Brad Boimler made it to the big chair, taking command of the Cerritos in a key situation.
But even if all that hit right "in the feels," it wasn't quite as smooth rattling around in the head. Lower Decks has always been a tricky blend of elements, though when it's at its best, it manages to be both a credible Star Trek story vehicle and very funny at the same time. This week, it struck me as something less effective: a cartoon show that happens to be about Star Trek. It had the breakneck pacing of a half-hour cartoon that sometimes has to ignore "real-world" logic to move through the story it aims to tell.
For example: I had a hard time imagine that Nick Locarno (of all people) could have managed to put together an organization like this. And more (given the friction we saw throughout between his willful allies and his own gargantuan ego), it was hard to see how it all could have lasted this long and not have fallen apart well before Mariner arrived on the scene. Captain Freeman wagering the Cerritos was a necessary development to force Tendi into her own no-win scenario, but... Captain Freeman wagering the Cerritos?! Even logical T'Lyn felt a bit chaotic, choosing to stay on the Cerritos with her "bestie" when she knew Tendi had already promised to leave.
But like I said before, all these broad swings did often hit the mark emotionally. So did the wall-to-wall nostalgia. The climax that lovingly revisited Star Trek II was delightful, as were the many specific shot-for-shot re-creations of moments from that great film. And the opening flashback to Starfleet Academy was wonderful. The series took advantage of something only it (and Prodigy) can do, and brought back both Wil Wheaton and guest star Shannon Fill to voice their characters of Wesley Crusher and Sito Jaxa -- as they were decades ago. On a cartoon, you don't need to wheel out some horror from the uncanny valley when you want to de-age a cast member; you just bring the actor up to the microphone.
And, as always, the jokes were funny, from gags about Tom Paris and Nick Locarno looking alike to Boimler's editorializing about the Maquis to the return of "Twaining" as a form of conflict resolution.
So overall, I'll give the finale of season four a B. I feel like if they'd spent a little less of the season teasing their mystery and given a little more time to the resolution of the mystery, the story could have flowed more naturally. But endings are hard, as they say, and this one did at least strike the right tone. Now, the long wait for season five begins.
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